What are the important events that happened on February 28? Here are historical events, facts, and some myths about this day.
February 28: Facts & Myths About This Day
February 28 is the 59th day of the year 2024 in the Gregorian calendar. There are 307 days remaining until the end of this year. The day of the week is Wednesday.
Under the Julian calendar, this day is February 15, 2024 – a Wednesday. Both day of the week are the same but did you notice the difference with the Gregorian calendar?
When this day started, 1,709,078,400 seconds has elapsed since midnight of January 1, 1970 – the Unix epoch.
Strange as it may, if we name this day after a polygon then it will be called ‘pentacontaenneagon’ day.
Pisces is the zodiac sign of a person born on this day. Amethyst is the modern birthstone for this month. Bloodstone is the mystical birthstone from Tibetan origin that dates back over a thousand years.
According to the lunisolar Chinese calendar, there are 336 days remaining before the start of the next Chinese New Year.
The ancient Maya civilization believes that the end of the world will happen on December 21, 2012. There are now 4,086 days since this fabled cataclysmic event.
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February 28 Historical Events
- 1700 –Today is followed by March 1 in Sweden, thus creating the Swedish calendar.
- 1849 –Regular steamboat service from the west to the east coast of the United States begins with the arrival of the SS California in San Francisco Bay, 4 months 22 days after leaving New York Harbor.
- 1885 –The American Telephone and Telegraph Company is incorporated in New York State as the subsidiary of American Bell Telephone. (American Bell would later merge with its subsidiary.)
- 1893 –The USS Indiana, the lead ship of her class and the first battleship in the United States Navy comparable to foreign battleships of the time, is launched.
- 1935 –DuPont scientist Wallace Carothers invents nylon.
- 1953 –James D. Watson and Francis Crick announce to friends that they have determined the chemical structure of DNA; the formal announcement takes place on April 25 following publication in April’s Nature (pub. April 2).
- 1958 –A school bus in Floyd County, Kentucky hits a wrecker truck and plunges down an embankment into the rain-swollen Levisa Fork River. The driver and 26 children die in what remains the worst school bus accident in U.S. history.
- 1972 –Sino-American relations: The United States and People’s Republic of China sign the Shanghai Communiqué.
- 1975 –A major tube train crash at Moorgate station, London kills 43 people.
- 1997 –An earthquake in northern Iran is responsible for about 3,000 deaths.
Who were born on February 28?
- 1683 –René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur, French scientist (d. 1757)
- 1907 –Milton Caniff, American cartoonist (Terry and the Pirates, Steve Canyon) (d. 1988)
- 1923 –Charles Durning, American actor
- 1948 –Mike Figgis, English director
- 1956 –Guy Maddin, Canadian film director
- 1956 –Jimmy Nicholl, Canadian-born Northern Irish footballer
- 1958 –Jeanne Mas, French singer and actress
- 1965 –Park Gok-ji, South Korean film editor
- 1971 –Maxine Bahns, American actress
- 1973 –Eric Lindros, Canadian ice hockey player
Who died on February 28?
- 1836 –Friedrich August Grotefend, German philogist (b. 1798)
- 1929 –Clemens von Pirquet, Austrian physician (b. 1874)
- 1932 –Guillaume Bigourdan, French astronomer (b. 1851)
- 1935 –Chiquinha Gonzaga, Brazilian composer (b. 1847).
- 1936 –Charles Nicolle, French bacteriologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (b. 1866)
- 1967 –Henry Luce, American publisher (b. 1898)
- 2003 –Chris Brasher, English athlete (b. 1928)
- 2003 –Dinos Dimopoulos, Greek film director and screenwriter (b. 1921)
- 2003 –Fidel Sánchez Hernández, President of El Salvador (b. 1917)
- 2007 –Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. American historian and political commentator (b. 1917)
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